Regarding the thought of "life education", the theory of "life education" is the theoretical system of Tao Xingzhi's educational thought, which first appeared in the form of rural education. Later, Tao Xingzhi regarded it as a new education and a poor education, which are opposite to traditional education, old education and rich education.
1, "life is education" and "life is education" are the core of Tao Xingzhi's life education theory. What is "life education"? Tao Xingzhi pointed out: "Life education is the original, independent and necessary education of life. The fundamental meaning of education is to change life. Life is always like this, that is, life always contains the meaning of education. " Since life education has existed in human society, life is education, and the so-called "education is what you live"; Living well means receiving a good education, and living badly means receiving a bad education. "He also pointed out that" life education is innate and walks with life. Born to break; Graduation is only when you go to the coffin. It can be seen that the basic meaning of "life is education" is as follows: first, "life is education" has existed in human society, and life education has existed since the birth of human life, and life education has changed with the changes of human life. Second, "life is education" corresponds to all kinds of life in the reality of human society. Life education is the education in life, and education is carried out in all kinds of life. Third, "life is education" is a kind of lifelong education, which is accompanied by life.
2. "Society is school" and "Society is school" is another important proposition of Tao Xingzhi's "life education" theory. Tao Xingzhi believes that society has been a school since the beginning of human history. If we look at society from the standpoint of the public, it is the only school for the public and life is the only education for the public. The reason why the ruling class and scholar-officials don't admit this is that they have special schools to give their children special education. Tao Xingzhi opposed this special unequal education and put forward "society is school" to promote universal education for the public. Tao Xingzhi put forward that "society is school", which is to expand the object of education and the content of learning, so that more people can receive education. He pointed out: "We advocate' society is school' because there are too few things in schools under the proposition of' school is society'. It is better to advocate' society is school' on the other hand. Educational materials, methods, tools and environment can be greatly increased and more students and teachers can be added. " Tao Xingzhi's "society is school" is the same as "life is education", and it is also to oppose the disconnection and isolation between traditional education and life, and between school and society. He believes that "school is society, just like catching a lively bird from the sky and keeping it in a cage." It needs a primary school to absorb everything in society, so it is easy to cheat. In addition, this kind of education has built a "high wall" between schools and society, separating schools from social life. Tao Xingzhi put forward that "the society is the school", which means "putting the caged bird in the sky and letting it soar at will", tearing down the high wall between the school and the society and "extending everything in the school to nature".
3. "Teaching, learning and doing in one"? "Integration of teaching and doing" is the teaching concept of life education theory. In Tao Xingzhi's words, "integration of teaching and doing" is the explanation of life phenomenon, that is, the explanation of education phenomenon. In life, it is said that doing things, learning is for your own progress, and teaching is for people. Teaching and doing are only three aspects of life, not three processes of mutual disagreement. "Teaching is one thing, not three things. We should teach while doing and learn while doing. " Taking farming as an example, he pointed out that if farming is to be carried out in the field, it is necessary to study and teach in the field. In Tao Xingzhi's view, "teaching integration" is not only a law of life, but also a law of education. This means that teaching methods should be based on learning methods, and learning methods should be based on doing methods. Teaching without doing is not teaching; Learning without doing is not learning. Teaching and learning are centered on doing. " Therefore, he particularly emphasized the necessity of acquiring knowledge through "doing" activities. It is worth pointing out that the combination of teaching and doing is different from Dewey's learning by doing. First of all, Tao Xingzhi's "doing" refers to "working hard" and opposes the disconnection between labor and hard work. Secondly, this "doing" is also the "doing is the beginning of knowing". Tao Xingzhi pointed out: "The integration of teaching and learning is centered on doing, so it is natural to turn Yang Ming's point of view upside down and turn it into' doing is the beginning of knowing' and' re-knowing must be done first'." He believes that "if you dare to do it, you will gain knowledge." It can be seen that Tao Xingzhi's "behavior" is based on "behavior" and seeks knowledge by "behavior", emphasizing that "behavior" is the source of knowledge. These viewpoints have materialistic factors in epistemology, so they are different from subjective idealism's "integration of teaching and doing" and "learning from care" However, Tao Xingzhi's "doing" is different from the practice we are talking about now. What he said was only narrow and trivial personal activities. Tao Xingzhi pays special attention to the role of life education, which is the only way to transform China's education and society. In Tao Xingzhi's view, with life education, we can break the traditional old education of "dead reading, dead reading and dead reading"; With life education, we can "master all knowledge and skills at will", and with life education, we can "increase our knowledge, strength and faith". Tao Xingzhi did not take life education as a standard to measure education, schools, books and even everything. He said: "Education that is not life-centered is death education. A school without life as the center is a dead school. Books without life as the center are dead books. People fooling around in dead education, dead schools and dead books are all dead. "Life education theory has certain positive significance in anti-traditional old education. It exposes and criticizes the problems existing in the old education, and at the same time puts forward concrete methods to solve the problems. In the history at that time, many aspects were suitable for popularizing literacy education and eliminating illiteracy. For example, Tao Xingzhi put forward "teaching and doing in one", which requires the combination of "teaching" and "learning" and "doing" and the combination with real life activities, which has new requirements for teachers. Teachers are required to respect students, pay attention to life outside teaching, guide students to learn good skills in practical activities, and cultivate students' life ability. In this sense, it played a positive role in the reform of teaching methods at that time and also inspired our current teaching methods.